Wednesday, 2 September 2015

The rain had blown over and the sun was out. Such a nice day warranted a wander around the town. The timber knight seen yesterday proved to be one of a number around the town. They are part of the Northampton Knights Trail. The six statues scattered around the town are to be moved to Delapre Park this month.

Apparently Delapre Park is on the site of Northampton Castle which also interested me. I went looking for the castle. Alas the history of the castle revealed it was demolished in 1662 on the order of the king. By the beginning of the 19th century only ruins were left. In 1879 the railway arrived in Northampton and the station was constructed where the castle once stood. All that now remains is a repositioned postern gate mounted in a wall to the west of the main entrance to the railway station.

The town Guildhall is an attractive looking building. However it looks “new” and I did wonder when it was constructed.

To my surprise, it was completed in 1864. I thought it was newer!

The route back to Waiouru took me beside the river. I stopped to take a photo of the junction where the canal joins the River Nene.

The entrance to the canal is in the middle of the above photo whilst the river branches to the right. I was intrigued by the guillotine gate in the left of the photo. It appears to go into what is now the Carlsberg Workers Club. After looking in Google Earth it appears there may have been a dock behind the gate?

This afternoon some fellow kiwi boaters passed by on their way to their next festival. Barry was on the stern and Sandra popped her head out for a few minutes before they had to head off for their allocated slot at the flight.

This blog is about us, Tom and Jan.
After a decade of travelling from 'down-under' every two years to spend a brief few weeks having a wonderful canal holiday we decided to eliminate the travel and do it full time on retirement. In 2011 we moved to the UK and built Waiouru before spending 6 wonderful years cruising.
In 2017 we sold our lovely boat and moved back to Perth, West Australia where other adventures are on the 'bucket list'.